YUAN FALLS TO 1-WEEK LOW

Shang­hai: China’s yuan weak­ened to one-week low against the dol­lar on Wed­nes­day as traders waited to see if the re­sults of US midterm elec­tions al­tered the course of the strong dol­lar or pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s ag­gres­sive trade poli­cies. As ex­pected, Trump and his fel­low Repub­li­cans looked set to keep their ma­jor­ity in the US Se­nate but lose con­trol of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, fol­low­ing a di­vi­sive cam­paign.

The dol­lar see­sawed as the re­sults trick­led in, with a split Congress and the pos­si­b­lity of leg­isla­tive dead­lock ex­pected to hurt the green­back tem­po­rar­ily. How­ever, on trade pol­icy Trump still has am­ple lat­i­tude with­out need­ing ap­proval from Congress. In the spot mar­ket, the on­shore yuan opened at 6.9248 per dol­lar and fell to a low of 6.9432 at one point, the weak­est level since Novem­ber 1.